Monday, July 18, 2011

Day 321

After an awesome lunch meeting, I have another goal completed...

76. Create a discount deal with another vendor
76. Create a discount deal with another vendor

I met with a lovely Zeta sister who's getting into the wedding business for lunch today.  We discussed getting into the business, some fun stories from weddings, exchanged cards, and worked out what discounts we can give each other.  Some of it will take a while to pan out (as in while we build our businesses) but we're doing what we can for now :)

And so... please check out my sorority sister Amanda's photography business, Amanda Truth Photography!

amandatruthphotography.wordpress.com

On a non-wedding note, I bought a Living Social deal for bikram yoga classes, which I'll be taking with Nikki and Ami.  Fun times!  Goal 13 is going down!

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Day 313

I'm hard core pouting right now.  Yes, I'm aware of what a toddler that makes me sound like.  I contacted my September bride for her vendors since she's getting pretty close to her wedding date, and she told me that they'd massively downsized things and didn't need my services anymore :(  Sigh.  I'm not mad or anything, just disappointed.  This is why I'm now requiring deposits.  Guess I'm down to 5 out of 7 again.  I'll change it later, I'm just not up for it right now.

Pout. :-/

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Day 310

I brag because I care.

I might have a 2 birds-1 stone chance for my goals next year... visiting Cory in college and visiting the Texas relatives.  Why?

Because my little brother got offered an athletic scholarship to University of Texas!

I'm so proud of him!!  It's his top choice school, and the coach flew out from Texas to offer him the scholarship in person on July 1.  It's kind of a big deal.

:-D

In other news, this was a wonderful wedding weekend, and completely personal!  My ZTA little sister got married on Saturday!  John and I missed the last turn going to the church and that was enough to get us there literally as Jenn walked down the aisle.*  I was disappointed about that part, but they had a gorgeous ceremony and we had soooo much fun at the reception!  The DJ was great (I got his card) and John and I sat at a table with all the ZTAs, woohoo Zeta table!  I'm so happy for Jenn and Aaron, they are a fantastic couple.

On Sunday John and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary!  We agreed to exchange gifts "in the spirit" of traditional anniversary gifts.  For example, last year was our paper anniversary, so he framed a painting we got on our honeymoon and gave me an artificial replica of my bouquet (paper roses).  I gave him some nice new art supplies.  This year, he gave me Vera Bradley beach towels and an umbrella, and an Angry Bird, lol.  I gave him a black sweater (it's always freezing in his new office) and a canvas of one of our favorite wedding portraits.  See, in the spirit of cotton :)  We went out to dinner at L'Auberge Chez Francois, which is sooo good.  Soooo expensive but soooo good.

On a professional wedding note, I'm starting into the process of making a deal with another vendor... we're meeting to discuss later this month.  I'm not going to give too much away now in case it doesn't pan out, but I'll give a hint... what's better than a Zeta as a wedding vendor?  Two Zetas as wedding vendors! :)

*Just to show how you get tunnel vision the moment before you get married: I walked into the church vestibule as Jenn was about to walk down the aisle.  There was definite eye contact.  Fast forward to the reception:
Me: I'm so sorry we were late!  We missed that last turn and had to add about 5 trying to find a way to turn around.
Jenn: Oh no!
Me: Yeah, I felt so terrible showing up as you were walking down the aisle.
Jenn: You got there as I was walking down the aisle?
Me: We made eye contact...
Well, it's easy to get over guilt when no one noticed lol.

Friday, July 1, 2011

Day 304

Happy birthday, Infinite Joy Weddings!  One year ago today, Rachel and Ian married in an outdoor ceremony at the Atrium at Meadowlark.  Theirs was my first wedding as a coordinator.  I’ve always been really grateful to them.  As a bride, I found that it was one thing to work with a *relatively* new vendor.  The great thing about those vendors was that while they had some experience, their portfolios were a little thin, so I could get a great deal early on.  It was another thing entirely to even consider working with someone who had no experience at all, especially if this was someone who would be in the thick of things on your wedding day.  But even though I had no real day of coordination experience of which to speak, they gave me a chance and I’ve been able to get things moving because of it.

Since that day, I’ve done 4 weddings on my own, 12 if you include the ones Kristi so graciously let me help her with.  I’m incredibly grateful to her as well, because let’s face it, it’s a lot easier to hire someone who has a wedding planning internship under her belt and a few solo weddings than someone who has only done this 3-4 times.  Working with her has both taught me a lot about being a coordinator and boosted my confidence so that I can make a strong case to the client as to why they should hire me.

I now have 4 weddings pending, and I’m confident that this coming year will be even better for Infinite Joy Weddings that the last one. So happy birthday Infinite Joy Weddings… here’s to many, many more years!